Blog 4

            Monk was a talented musician, but his genius would not have had the chance to flourish if it had not been for the San Juan Hill community. The San Juan Hill community was composed of a collection of different races, each with their own separate community. These communities were from a diverse set of cultures, and did not always get along. There were racial tensions between these communities, even violence and occasional riots. Monk himself experienced some of this interracial conflict in San Juan Hill. “I did all that fighting with ofays [whites] when I was a kid. We had to fight to make it so we could walk the streets. … It was mean all over New York, all the boroughs. Then, besides fighting the ofays, you had to fight each other. You go in the next block and you’re in another country.”” (Kelley 27).

Monk was saved, however, by the people, institutions, and resources of his community. From their arrival in San Juan Hill, Monk’s mother wanted better things for her children. She worked hard to give them opportunities, including school, musical education and a good place to live. Monk’s early piano lessons with Simon Wolf were paid for by her hard work. The Columbus Hill Center was beloved by Monk and the community in general. It provided a place for Monk to play music for an audience, but it was also a cultural center for all the youth of San Juan Hill, including his siblings Marion and Thomas. “For Thelonious, Marion, and Thomas, the Center became their second home… Thelonious rarely beat his big sister at paddle ball, but he excelled on the basketball court (though, contrary to popular myth, he never played for his high school basketball team), and he was a shark when it came to billiards and table tennis.” (Kelley 37). Some of Monk’s first bands were made of people he met through the Center.

In this respect, San Juan Hill is much like Leimert Park, a community in downtown LA. Originally surrounded by violence, over time, it became a safe community closely tied by its artistic community. Jazz, poetry, dance, and other forms of art helped tie the community together. In particular, the coffeehouse and World Stage in Leimert Park were a center for culture in Leimert Park, much in the same way the Columbus Hill Center was for San Juan. Art was a forum for members of the community, something that connected them, which is especially important when the community contains many clashing cultures. Monk’s music was influenced by this exchange and diversity of culture, and most of his early performance work was in that community. If not for the San Juan Hill community, Monk may never have received the opportunities he did.